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Black Macbook, best SSD

M

martin.velo

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 25, 2012
2
0
Hey, bit of a lurker finally making my first post.

Yesterday in an attempt to upgrade my black Macbook (2008, Intel) from Leopard to Snow Leopard the update failed and then provided me with the knowledge, after a trip to the genius bar, that my hard drive was failing and very close to complete death. I see it as a blessing in disguise, as yesterday was the first time that I backed up since 2009. Anyways, now I need a new hard drive. I have been wanting to go SSD anyways and now is a perfect time. Any specific recommendations? 3G vs 6G? from what I discern 3G is as good as I can go?

It seems like the OWC ones are nice, and long lasting. Not quite sure what else I should or shouldn't be looking at.

Also sort of tossing around the idea of getting a mini and ipad instead.

thanks
 
Blackbooks only have SATA1. That means that the fastest speeds you can get are 1.5Gigibits/second. Most SSDs currently on the market will fully utilize the available throughput.
 
Black MacBooks only have an S-ATA 1.5 Gbps (S-ATA I) interface, thus you will not see S-ATA 3.0 Gbps (S-ATA II) or S-ATA 6.0 Gbps (S-ATA III) speeds with an S-ATA II or S-ATA III SSD, though buying an S-ATA III SSD might be a good choice, as you can put it into a new Mac or other computer, if you ever decide to get one.

I have an S-ATA III (Vertex 3 120 GB) SSD in my 2009 MBP, which only has S-ATA II, but it is still fast, as the random access time is more important than the constant read and write speed anyway.


MacBook, MacBook Pro: Replacing the Hard Disk Drive, transferring data to the new HDD

the guide includes:
  • 0. Identify your MacBook or MacBook Pro
  • 1. Getting a new HDD
  • 2. Guides to replace the internal HDD with a newer one
  • 3. Transferring data from the old HDD to the new HDD
  • 4. Using the optical disk drive (ODD) slot for placing an SSD or HDD inside the MB/P (OPTIBAY)
​


 
The only reason to go with the SSD is that chances are it will last longer than another HDD. Be that as it may, all electronics have the potential to die. It's just the way of the world. You can get very good HDDs these days for pretty cheap. I recently bought a 2.5" - 750 GB - 7200 RPM drive for 80 bucks when it was on sale. I'm seeing 1 TB drives for around 100-ish. Would definitely be a worthy upgrade to your MacBook if you have the dough.

Just remember to always keep a backup of your files. Hard drives can't and shouldn't be relied on to work forever.
 
Thanks for the opinions. I'm pretty set on the SSD.

So, if my MB is only 1.5, what OWC SSD would I go for then?
 
Your blackbook is a 5 year old machine and SSDs are pricey. I would recommend looking at nice 750gb HDD @ 7200 rpm if will be much cheaper and you will see a nice improvement in performance.
 
Medic278 said:
Your blackbook is a 5 year old machine and SSDs are pricey. I would recommend looking at nice 750gb HDD @ 7200 rpm if will be much cheaper and you will see a nice improvement in performance.
Click to expand...

The amazing thing is that the cost of SSD's keep falling while the floods in Thailand have the cost of traditional hard drives soaring. It's about the same price right now to buy a 60gb new SSD as it is to buy a 160gb new traditional hard drive ($60 was what I kept seeing tonight, some were after a $10-15 rebate on the SSD).
 
I recently installed a 60GB Vertex 3 inty my aging MacBook 1.83 Core Duo. The machine is flying, real fast. Its just as usable in daily tasks as my 2011 MacBook Air.

Why Vertex 3 and not the Vertex 2? Because the price difference (88 vs 65 euro's) was nihil and if I were to install the drive in a new computer in the future, I can do so as it is one of the fastest drives out there.

The 60GB version is not so expensive. 88 euro's here in Holland.
 
SSD's are pretty cheap now. Well in terms how they were to last year compared to a couple years ago. I just put a Intel 320 Series 160GB in my black Macbook 2.0GHz Core2Duo, and all I have to say is: "WOW".

I mean you'll have to deal with the downgrade in read and write speeds since only SATA I is support in early macbooks

Remember in non-apple SSD trim is not enable, but most of SSD's now have a "garbage collector" feature built into it, but I still enabled TRIM.
 
Last edited:
DaKKs said:
So the Sata3 drives are backwards compatible with Sata1 motherboards? Then a modern SSD shouldn't be an issue in my MB1.1 (2006), right?
Click to expand...
Correct.

I have used SATA-2 and SATA-3 drives in my MacBook (2006). They work fine. The limiting factor is the computer's SATA interface, not the drive. If you're sticking in an SDD in a computer, it's better to slightly overspec the drive so you know it's not the bottleneck.

It's not like I'm going to take a top-of-the-line SSD and shove it into my MacBook. I'm currently using an OCZ Agility3 in my old MacBook.

The main limitation I've seen in using the OCZ drive in my old MacBook is that it won't boot the Linux-based EFI drive tools so I can't upgrade the drive firmware.

Caveat: there are probably some weird compatibility issues that someone will claim, but I've never seen them in my usage. But then again, I only have two Macs, so it's not like I'm a good sample size.
 
cvaldes said:
Correct.

I have used SATA-2 and SATA-3 drives in my MacBook (2006). They work fine. The limiting factor is the computer's SATA interface, not the drive. If you're sticking in an SDD in a computer, it's better to slightly overspec the drive so you know it's not the bottleneck.

It's not like I'm going to take a top-of-the-line SSD and shove it into my MacBook. I'm currently using an OCZ Agility3 in my old MacBook.

The main limitation I've seen in using the OCZ drive in my old MacBook is that it won't boot the Linux-based EFI drive tools so I can't upgrade the drive firmware.

Caveat: there are probably some weird compatibility issues that someone will claim, but I've never seen them in my usage. But then again, I only have two Macs, so it's not like I'm a good sample size.
Click to expand...

have you tried rEFIt?
 
hey guys, first post..

So I ordered a Crucial m4 64GB SSD for my MacBook 2,1 (I think it was 2007?)
It's SATA III, I was coming here to make sure it would be compatible with my machine (I know, kind of dumb 'making sure' AFTER purchasing it..) but from what I am reading the answer is yes?
 
deckard55 said:
hey guys, first post..

So I ordered a Crucial m4 64GB SSD for my MacBook 2,1 (I think it was 2007?)
It's SATA III, I was coming here to make sure it would be compatible with my machine (I know, kind of dumb 'making sure' AFTER purchasing it..) but from what I am reading the answer is yes?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure its plug and play. I've used a cruical ssd in my toughbook. So if its capable of running on PATA, i think it can run on SATA 1 too.
 
deckard55 said:
hey guys, first post..

So I ordered a Crucial m4 64GB SSD for my MacBook 2,1 (I think it was 2007?)
It's SATA III, I was coming here to make sure it would be compatible with my machine (I know, kind of dumb 'making sure' AFTER purchasing it..) but from what I am reading the answer is yes?
Click to expand...

The SATA spec is backwards compatible, so you will be fine.
 
deckard55 said:
hey guys, first post..

So I ordered a Crucial m4 64GB SSD for my MacBook 2,1 (I think it was 2007?)
It's SATA III, I was coming here to make sure it would be compatible with my machine (I know, kind of dumb 'making sure' AFTER purchasing it..) but from what I am reading the answer is yes?
Click to expand...

Remember that your fans will start to pump into overdrive due to the ssd. Use SMCfan control if you need to dictate the speeds.
 
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